Saturday, 19 October 2013

COVER REVEAL - Vital Sign by J.L. Mac

TITLE - Vital Sign
AUTHOR - J.L. Mac




Sadie Parker’s life has been nothing short of simple and perfect. She has Jacob, her loving husband. She has her art. She has stability and she has big plans and endless hope for the future. Until now. Until the night that turned her perfect life into a horrific nightmare. She’s a woman with the need for understanding and closure. She’s something she agonizes over. She’s a widow.

Sadie sets out on a journey to healing without knowing that things will get far worse before they get better. Despite her general indifference to organ donation she feels compelled to seek out the recipients of Jacob’s organs with hopes that meeting those people will soothe her own grief.

Resentment runs rampant as she meets the thriving, organ recipients. She has difficulty not being angry and jealous. The heart recipient is the last person she seeks to meet and he is a complete game changer. She hates him for his health but can’t help but feel at home in his presence. He soothes her grief in a way that is intoxicating; addictive even.

The heart that once fell in love with her now resides in Alexander Hayden’s chest. It’s a circumstance that forces her to wage an internal war fueled by grief, anger, guilt, love, lust, and loyalty.

Sadie must discover the things that are vital to going on with her life if she has any hope of finding her way through the all consuming grief that dominates every waking moment.



“If you think for one second that I wanted this, you’re wrong,” he bellows at me so loudly that I startle. I take a cautious step back but he instantly steps forward, closing the space between us. I can feel the heat and anger radiating from him. His breathing is uneven and he seems to be trembling just as much as I am.

Before I have a chance to even think, he grips his shirt at the front and rips it open sending a few buttons skittering across his floor in all directions. My eyes instinctively look towards the floor to watch where buttons have flown. When I look up, I find myself looking at the angered man who ripped his shirt open like a neanderthal. He steps even closer to me, leaving only an inch or two of space for me to call mine. His eyes bore into me as he shrugs his shoulders up and down a few times, easily slipping out of the fabric. I watch it drop to the floor and do my best to compose myself.

“Look at it,” he demands and I know exactly what he is talking about. I haven’t seen his scar yet and I’m not quite sure that I am ready to see the marred chest that was split open to welcome in a new heart. It was new to him anyway. It damn sure wasn’t new to me. I have known that heart since childhood. I loved that heart. That’s the heart that loved me right back.

In spite of the growing knot in my throat I look up from the floor to stare straight ahead at a long vertical, deep pink scar. It’s wide and long extending the full length of his sternum.

My head lowers and my eyes drift askew on their own. The sight of his scar makes me sad for him and resentful all at once. Why does he get to live? Why did Jacob have to die? Why do I have this stupid guilt keeping me from ending it all? I know none of this was Alex’s fault. I know that it’s shitty of me to hate him for reasons that make zero sense. Maybe I don’t hate him at all. Maybe I just hate that I feel guilty for being attracted to him. I feel bad that a small part of me is thankful that he is the man who received my husband’s heart.

Tears well in my eyes making me want to hide. I want to hide from everything. Alex hand lifts to cup my cheek and he gently lifts my head to face him. The anger I saw for a moment has been replaced with a look of sympathy.

“I’m glad that you’re alive. I guess I’m just not glad that I am.” My admission feels like it’s more for me than it is for him. He sighs heavily and pulls me to his bare chest with such force that the breath in my lungs rushes out. With my cheek pressed to his chest I sob to the sound of the steady, strong heart that I have loved for so long.

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